snydeq writes: "InfoWorld's Neil McAllister offers up seven myths of modern programming practices, noting that while programming tools have gotten sharper, software development remains rife with misconceptions on productivity, code efficiency, offshoring, and more. 'Even among people as logical and rational as software developers, you should never underestimate the power of myth. Some programmers will believe what they choose to believe against all better judgment,' McAllister wrties. 'The real shame is that, in many cases, our elders pointed out our errors years ago, if only we would pay attention. Here are just a few examples of modern-day programming myths, many of which are actually new takes on age-old fallacies.'"Link to Original Source

They don't think "Great programmers write the fastest code". Good programmers do tend to produce faster code, not usually by optimizing and instruction shaving (which they rail against) but by writing algorithms with lower asymptotic bounds. Many applications have performance concerns, and understanding algorithm performance (and how to improve it) is something I'd expect from a good programmer. Obviously it's a mistake to attempt certain kinds of optimization, but "fastest code" is often a legitimate ta